Homemade Bihari thali for dinner – Litti chokha & happiness

Litti chokha is generally preferred as a snack in Bihar, East Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and some parts in West Bengal. But still, many people love to have this food for dinner. This is a traditional Bihari food and very healthy too. If you like litti chokha then you will definitely enjoy this homemade Bihari thali for dinner too. What do you think? Do you want to try this Bihari thali menu for Friday special dinner?

What is litti chokha?

If you are still with me but you do not know what is litti chokha then you are a true food explorer. But unfortunately, you missed this food on your food journey.

Litti is a very simple food made of whole wheat flour stuffed with sattu (roasted chickpeas flour) & spices filling. Those littis are usually served with various chokha (bharta). Generally, people use baingan (brinjal/eggplant), aloo (potatoes) and tomatoes to make awesome spicy & tasty chokha. Some people even enjoy litti with pickle, onion & green chillies. Litti is cooked in the low fire. Mostly cow dung cake or dry wood is used to produce fire but this is not always possible if you live in an urban area. So you can use electric tandoor, gas tandoor or cook directly on fire of gas oven. Nowadays many people have started enjoying grilled food at home. So they have bought charcoal barbecue grill what they often use for the picnic, outdoor party or rooftop party too. That charcoal barbecue can be used to make litti and roast potatoes, brinjal and tomatoes to make chokha.

One year back, I used to buy litti chokha from a local roadside store where the street food vendor used to cook litti on an iron tawa (Indian cooking pan).

Fun in making litti chokha

The process of making litti chokha is very interesting and when other family members are involved in the making of litti chokha then it brings a lot of happiness & joy. It does not need many utensils to make this litti chokha. You just need fire to roast brinjals, potatoes and tomatoes. You also use the same fire to cook littis. I mean you do not need any utensil or cooking pot because you can directly put raw litti in the fire of burning dry wood or cow dung cake. But in case you are using the fire of gas oven then you can use a support to put those litti balls on the fire.

It is said mostly male members of the family make this litti chokha. People come out the house and gather outside. Then use cow dung cake or dry wood to produce fire. This happens on the day of any festival in Bihar. This is a really fun activity what creates an opportunity to talk to each other. It allows children to play joyfully & family members share happiness each others and do a lot of fun activities.

Bihari thali menu for dinner

There will be various starters, main courses, side dishes and desserts in an ideal Bihari thali. You can notice a strong influence of North Indian foods in Bihari cuisine whereas you will also notice a significant influence of Bengali food in Bihari cuisine. So both North Indian & East Indian can enjoy Bihari thali a lot. Bihari people like various non vegetarian and vegetarian dishes.

Perfect litti chokha dinner (Best Bihari Thali menu)

I have mentioned many delicious Bihari dishes what I have tried in my life. Some of those even I made at home. But what will be your ideal Bihari thali menu? For litti lovers, I think it would be definitely litti chokha thali. I mean nothing can be more special & delicious Bihari thali if you like litti chokha for dinner. I made this for my Friday special dinner. So I made all chokha dishes to serve with litti. Aloo chokha, Baingan chokha and tomato chokha – all were so delicious and very easy to make too. So here is my homemade best Bihari thali menu for a perfect Friday dinner.